Range

In general, the further your computer is from your wireless router, the lower the signal strength will be. When the signal strength is low, there's a higher chance that you'll experience dropping connections, and the speed of the wireless connection will decrease. The range is affected by obstructions and interference.

Obstructions

Obstructions between your computer and wireless router make for lower signal strength; different materials have different effects. We've listed a number of obstacles you may have in your house, and suggest that you try and relocate your router where possible to see if the situation improves:

Very high - metal

High - concrete

Medium - marble

Medium - bricks

Medium - stone walls

Medium - water - (i.e. enclosed in a fish tank)

Low - glass

Low - plaster

Low - wood

Interference

The following items can cause wireless interference:

Other wireless routers, e.g. a neighbour's

Cordless phones

Baby monitors

Microwave ovens

HiFi speakers

Computers - if obstructing wireless cards

Older CRT computer monitors or TVs

Wireless keyboards or mice

Bluetooth devices

Any other wireless devices using the 2.4GHz frequency range

The further away the source of interference is from the wireless router, the less chance there is that it will cause an issue.

Put your router in pride of place

Where you position your router can make a big difference to the speed of your connection.

Do: Put it on a shelf or table

Don't: Put it on the floor - especially if you've got thick carpets

Do: Place it away from sources of interference such as microwave ovens, baby monitors cordless phones and HiFi speakers

Try to: Move your router close to where you use the internet the most, for example in the middle of your house

Changing your router's channel or band

Changing the frequency of your router can help to improve your wireless performance. With a Bright Box 2 on Fibre Broadband, you can even change the wireless band. You'll find more help with this in our guides below:

Refresh the connection

If the connection drops, you may need to refresh the connection. Messages like Limited or Limited or no connectivity may be received on a Windows computer. On Apple Mac's, the AirPort icon might display an exclamation mark or blink between grey and black.

The tips below may help:

Internal cards on laptops. Try turning the wireless switch on the laptop off for a few seconds, then back on.

USB wireless adaptors. Unplug the wireless adaptor for 20 seconds, then plug it back in.

Restart your router

From time to time, it can help to turn your router off, then back on again. To do this:

Turn your router (and Openreach modem if you have one) off at the power

Wait a minute

Turn it back on again

It will take around a minute to restart and for your connection to come back on

Update wireless drivers

If you're using an inbuilt wireless adaptor, it may help to contact the manufacturer to see if any driver updates are available. These might improve wireless connectivity and even performance.

Third party wireless software on your computer

If you're using wireless software on your computer that's not provided by Windows or Apple this may be the cause of the intermittent connection problem. We suggest you use Windows or Apple software to manage your wireless connection, and disable the third party wireless software. The manufacturer of your computer should be able to assist with this, if you're unable to locate an option to disable the software.

Older wireless devices

If you have older wireless devices connected to your router, these can cause the speed of your wireless connection to reduce.

Try turning off older devices as a test, then restart your router and see if the wireless performance improves.

It may help to contact the manufacturer to see if any driver updates are available. These might improve wireless connectivity.

Update your computer

We strongly recommend that you update your operating system with the latest service packs. This is not only for security reasons, but also because many wireless connectivity issues are fed back to Microsoft and Apple, and then improved with new releases.